Speaker 1: This is Gary and Shannon and you're listening to KFI
Speaker 1: AM six forty, the Gary and Shannon Show on demand
Speaker 1: on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2: Four people were killed six others injured in a highway
Speaker 2: bridge collapse while it was under construction in South Korea today.
Speaker 2: Ten workers were on that bridge when it collapsed. The
Speaker 2: rescue operation finished up after the last worker was found dead.
Speaker 2: According to the National Fire Agency there in Korea, five
Speaker 2: of the six survivors are in critical condition. This thing
Speaker 2: was very high above the ground when it actually fell.
Speaker 2: A bunch of politics stuff to get to, including some
Speaker 2: of the latest straight out of this White House press briefing.
Speaker 2: It's time for swamp watch. I'm a politician, which means
Speaker 2: I'm a cheat and a liar. And when I'm not
Speaker 2: kissing babies, I'm stealing the lollipops. Yeah, we got The
Speaker 2: real problem is that our leaders are done.
Speaker 1: The other side never quits. So what you're doing, I'm
Speaker 1: not going anywhere. So that now you train the squat,
Speaker 1: I can imagine what can be and be unburdened by
Speaker 1: what has been.
Speaker 2: You know, Americans have always been going at They're not stupid.
Speaker 2: A political flunder is when a politician actually tells the truth.
Speaker 2: Why have the people voted for you with na swamp watch?
Speaker 2: They're all count on you. Let's let's start with this
Speaker 2: White House Press briefing which just took place. Caroline Levitt
Speaker 2: was talking about the ongoing fight between the Associated Press
Speaker 2: and the Trump administration. If you remember, Trump banned the
Speaker 2: AP from from covering in specific instances oval office addresses
Speaker 2: or events. Also, AP is not allowed on Air Force one.
Speaker 2: And for the longest time, I mean for decades, the
Speaker 2: White House Correspondence Association has determined things like who gets
Speaker 2: in to the White House Press Briefing room, where they sit,
Speaker 2: things like that.
Speaker 1: The AP, by the way, was banned because they refuse
Speaker 1: to call the of Mexico the Gulf of America. Why
Speaker 1: because in the AP style Guide, which is essentially a bible,
Speaker 1: like that's as strict as they adhere to that style
Speaker 1: guide on how they write things in articles stories like that.
Speaker 1: In this style guide it says we are a global
Speaker 1: news agency. So that is why if it was just
Speaker 1: a news agency in America, they would refer to it
Speaker 1: as the Gulf of America. But because he has issued
Speaker 1: this executive order that it is the Golf of America.
Speaker 1: That executive order does not extend past America obviously, so globally,
Speaker 1: the rest of the world still refers to it as
Speaker 1: the Golf of Mexico, which is why the AP would
Speaker 1: continue to do so well.
Speaker 2: And even when they do refer to it as the
Speaker 2: Gulf of Mexico, they supposedly include a note that says
Speaker 2: in America, it's considered the Gulf of America. So the
Speaker 2: AP has been fighting to get its space back. It's
Speaker 2: not banned from white House events, it's banned from white
Speaker 2: House events with there is limited space and they usually
Speaker 2: use a pool reporter. A federal judge yesterday did not
Speaker 2: restore the AP's access to certain spaces because they said that.
Speaker 2: The judge said the AP didn't show a likelihood of
Speaker 2: success on the merits emphasized that additional briefing on the
Speaker 2: matter is going to be necessary given the stakes for
Speaker 2: both parties. The judge did also point out this is
Speaker 2: a bad look for the White House. This is a
Speaker 2: Trump appointed judge, and the judge said this is a
Speaker 2: bad look for the White House to go through with
Speaker 2: this in the immediacy. In the immediate term, the judge
Speaker 2: did not allow a restraining order to get the ap
Speaker 2: back in there. But this is what Caroline Levitt said
Speaker 2: this morning, the White House Correspondence Association will no longer
Speaker 2: determine who gets in the room.
Speaker 3: Asking the presidents of the United States questions in limited
Speaker 3: spaces such as the Oval Office in Air Force one
Speaker 3: is a privilege that unfortunately has only been granted to
Speaker 3: a few. It is not a legal right for all.
Speaker 3: The Trump administration has already proven to be the most
Speaker 3: transparent ever and this president the most accessible in history.
Speaker 3: This is evidence by President Trump's daily press conferences in
Speaker 3: the Oval Office, where he takes many questions from the
Speaker 3: journalists who have the honor and privilege of standing before
Speaker 3: the beautiful resolute desk. The President, in this entire White
Speaker 3: House are committed to ensuring the American people continue to
Speaker 3: receive this same level of historic transparency, access and visibility.
Speaker 2: Now, she goes on to say, I mean, she makes
Speaker 2: a good point there. This president loves a TV camera,
Speaker 2: and he's in fact, he's got another executive order signing
Speaker 2: event from the Oval Office I think at about noon today.
Speaker 2: In the last couple of weeks, five six weeks whatever
Speaker 2: since he's been president, he's in there four or five
Speaker 2: times a week answering questions basically as long as the
Speaker 2: people want to shout questions at him. The problem, I
Speaker 2: think that they're not acknowledging here is spin this around
Speaker 2: the other way. Let's say that Joe Biden banned Fox
Speaker 2: News Channel from having a correspondent in the White House
Speaker 2: press room or in the Oval office or on air
Speaker 2: Force one. People would lose their minds. And once you
Speaker 2: start going back and forth, whether whether it's a political
Speaker 2: motivation or not, the idea of banning certain news outlets
Speaker 2: like that, especially traditional news outlets, you're gonna you're gonna
Speaker 2: pay the price when the other guy has the ball.
Speaker 2: You're gonna be paying. You know, you're gonna have to answers.
Speaker 1: Would never do that. Democrats would never do that.
Speaker 2: Why not? Why not?
Speaker 1: Because they hold the press is Jesus Mary and the press,
Speaker 1: the mainstream media. They are so deferential to the Democrats.
Speaker 2: And I know, and that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: It was Joe Biden's weekend at Bernie's status for a
Speaker 1: year and a half.
Speaker 2: That's why I'm saying if it was Fox News that
Speaker 2: was that was booted out of the room for whatever reason.
Speaker 1: I don't think, No, I don't think Democrats would even
Speaker 1: boot Fox News. I just don't think you see it happening.
Speaker 1: But this is, I mean, this is kind of much
Speaker 1: to do about nothing. I guess you could argue because
Speaker 1: to your point, like this is Trump doing what Trump does.
Speaker 1: He doesn't take measured responses to things. He goes balls
Speaker 1: to the wall right away, Okay, find your band, instead
Speaker 1: of saying like, hey, let's have a dialogue about the
Speaker 1: style guide for the Associated Press or whatever. You know
Speaker 1: what I mean, Like, he goes to the jugular right
Speaker 1: away as a term, as a negotiation term, right like,
Speaker 1: I'm just going to ban you. It's just the way
Speaker 1: it's going to be. I'm not gonna hear anything. There's
Speaker 1: gonna be no discussion about it.
Speaker 2: Well, and I'm curious to see how far this goes
Speaker 2: court wise. I mean, this is this appears to be,
Speaker 2: on its face, a very simple First Amendment or I
Speaker 2: shouldn't say simple. It's clearly a first Amendment case. Can
Speaker 2: the AP, in its stated goal of being a media outlet,
Speaker 2: actually have the freedom to cover the president, and does
Speaker 2: the president have the ability to alter that sort of
Speaker 2: unspoken contract with a media organization.
Speaker 1: It's going to hang on the nuanced idea of special
Speaker 1: media access to the president. They may have the constitutional
Speaker 1: right to cover the president to be in the room,
Speaker 1: but do they have what's called special media access to
Speaker 1: the president and what rooms that allows them into, and
Speaker 1: if it's just a pool reporter, and it's certainly under
Speaker 1: the purview of the White House to choose which pool
Speaker 1: reporter can be present at all places or the close
Speaker 1: quarters places like that. I think when this first came out,
Speaker 1: and this was the first morning that I really dug
Speaker 1: into the specifics of this, the AP hasn't been banned
Speaker 1: from covering the president. It's just been banned from tight
Speaker 1: quarters and this special media access that has long been
Speaker 1: granted to the AP. But you also can't take that
Speaker 1: for granted. I'm not defending the president and what he
Speaker 1: did here. It's ridiculous. It's a child's argument. Oh you're
Speaker 1: not going to call it the Gulf of America, Well
Speaker 1: then you're banned. It's silly, it's juvenile, and nobody should
Speaker 1: be wasting their time on this, certainly not the president
Speaker 1: of the United States, but the way that it was
Speaker 1: sold to all of us was that the White House
Speaker 1: has banned the Associated Press, which is not the case.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you can tell that simply by going to whatever
Speaker 2: Associated Press website you want, AP news dot com. And
Speaker 2: they are still writing about the president, and they still
Speaker 2: have the high level of access to the press, the
Speaker 2: press people in the White House, et cetera. It's just
Speaker 2: that this significant development is the Caroline Levitt says that
Speaker 2: the White House Press Office will now be determining who
Speaker 2: gets to ask questions of the president in those most
Speaker 2: intimate spaces. Is the way that she put it. So,
Speaker 2: but yes, you'll be going.
Speaker 1: Have you heard about this Apple iPhone voice to text
Speaker 1: feature correction where some people were saying it's swapping out
Speaker 1: the word racist for Trump. This is apparently very popular
Speaker 1: on TikTok, users are saying when they say racist into
Speaker 1: voice to texts, Trump flashes on their screen for a
Speaker 1: hot second before switching to the correct word racist. They
Speaker 1: said that this issue has been.
Speaker 2: Replicated, Uncle racist, No, didn't do it.
Speaker 1: It didn't do it for you. The issue has been
Speaker 1: replicated multiple times though, according to TMZ, the journalistic beacon,
Speaker 1: that it is they say in their trials, they got
Speaker 1: what you did. It did not work for them, So
Speaker 1: it's just a it's just a ploy. Don't don't buy
Speaker 1: into what you read on TikTok kids.
Speaker 2: Up next, do not ignore the Foreign Office when they
Speaker 2: tell you to be careful as you're traveling. Hey, maybe
Speaker 2: you don't go to Haiti this year something like that.
Speaker 2: Probably probably don't want to ignore those warnings from the
Speaker 2: State Department when they tell you where and where not
Speaker 2: to go.
Speaker 1: I was kind of wondering when this would happen. I
Speaker 1: thought it would that there would be this like section,
Speaker 1: this sliver of idiot people who were interested in what
Speaker 1: they're calling danger tourism.
Speaker 2: Yep, yep, I'll just take a weekend in Cancun. That's
Speaker 2: fine with me.
Speaker 1: That's even dicey, to be honest.
Speaker 2: Well that's about as dicey as I get. So I'm
Speaker 2: not going to a raq or anything like that. A
Speaker 2: couple of things. I just want to throw this kind
Speaker 2: of tag this onto the swamp Watch because these things
Speaker 2: came out. I mentioned the border patrol numbers that Caroline
Speaker 2: Levitt talked about having a successful first several weeks of
Speaker 2: Trump policy at the border. She said border crossings are
Speaker 2: at a fifteen year low, that illegal border arrests were
Speaker 2: down ninety four percent over our illegal border crossings were
Speaker 2: down ninety four percent over last year, and that the
Speaker 2: interior arrests were up one hundred and thirty four percent.
Speaker 2: To give you an idea of the sheer number, she said,
Speaker 2: there were twenty one thousand, five hundred border patrol arrests
Speaker 2: in January, twenty one thousand, five hundred. In December that
Speaker 2: number was forty seven thousand, three hundred. So and then
Speaker 2: the other thing out of the White House is that
Speaker 2: apparently Elon Musk is going to attend President Trump's first
Speaker 2: cabinet meeting. To give you an idea of how elevated
Speaker 2: this non governmental special, special or special position is that
Speaker 2: the President says, basically he's at a cabinet level position
Speaker 2: without any of the accoutrement.
Speaker 1: Well, we all know about the foreign travel alerts where
Speaker 1: we shouldn't go in war torn countries, countries that are
Speaker 1: not friendly to the United States, things of that nature.
Speaker 1: There is a rise now of danger tourism, the act
Speaker 1: of knowingly traveling somewhere dangerous despite those government warnings. One
Speaker 1: recent high profile incident was the case of Miles Routledge.
Speaker 1: He's A blogger describes himself on x as the last
Speaker 1: great British explorer who goes to the most extreme places
Speaker 1: on Earth for fun. He blogged during the Taliban uprising
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty one was detained on a subsequent visit
Speaker 1: to the country. There are many many other self professed
Speaker 1: danger tourists across TikTok, x and Instagram. There's a documentary
Speaker 1: called Danger Zone by a Polish filmmaker Vita Maria Dragis
Speaker 1: and follows tourists in conflict areas. If you were to
Speaker 1: watch that film, you would meet Eleanora in Italian living
Speaker 1: in Vegas, who fires Ammo and poses with a rifle
Speaker 1: in Afghanistan. Then there's Rick, who runs an exclusive tour
Speaker 1: company leads a Mayorns to bombed out flats in Syria.
Speaker 1: Brit Andrew Drury travels to Somalia with an aspiring war
Speaker 1: tourist under his wing. There is a growing market in
Speaker 1: places like Ukraine to visit areas where at least two
Speaker 1: hundred and ninety civilians were brutally murdered by Russians in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two.
Speaker 2: Don't you ask questions of the people who want to
Speaker 2: go to places like this. I mean this is if
Speaker 2: it's one thing to go to Afghanistan, Syria something like that,
Speaker 2: it's another one to go at least in terms of
Speaker 2: the heat of that place right now. And I don't
Speaker 2: mean temperature, I mean political heat and actual combat heat.
Speaker 2: If you're going to Ukraine because you want to go
Speaker 2: to Buka where two hundred and ninety people were killed,
Speaker 2: why don't you just go to Milwaukee and hang out
Speaker 2: at Jeffrey Dahmer's place something like that?
Speaker 1: What kind of a hole goes to Ukraine when the
Speaker 1: war is still going going on and people are still dying,
Speaker 1: even if it wasn't still gone. But it is who
Speaker 1: goes to Ukraine to look at where two hundred and
Speaker 1: ninety civilians were slaughtered? Who wants to see that? Who
Speaker 1: wants to take the picture and then put it on
Speaker 1: their Christmas card and say, look at me, I went
Speaker 1: to Buka? Who is that person? And they should should
Speaker 1: never They should get the ticket there and then never
Speaker 1: be let back anywhere. The research firm Reports and Insights
Speaker 1: predicts the global value of dark tourism will hit about
Speaker 1: thirty five billion by the next ten years or so. Well,
Speaker 1: there's dark tourism and then there's danger tourism. Danger tourism,
Speaker 1: I think is different. You can split hairs here in
Speaker 1: terms of like danger tourism saying I want to go
Speaker 1: to Syria, not because I want to go to the
Speaker 1: place or the town where all these people were slaughtered,
Speaker 1: although how could you not in Syria, But I want
Speaker 1: to go somewhere where it's not safe, where it's not
Speaker 1: a Disneyland for tourists. That's one thing. Wanting to go
Speaker 1: pl places where people died in mass numbers is a
Speaker 1: whole different sickness. It goes from narcissism to just mental illness.
Speaker 1: I think in that comparison.
Speaker 2: And listen, you're going to fork out the money because
Speaker 2: not only are you going into these places that you
Speaker 2: probably have to do. You know, American Airlines isn't going
Speaker 2: to fly in Damascus into Damascus and have a regional
Speaker 2: flight over to Aleppo or something, but you also, in
Speaker 2: many cases invalidate any travel insurance policy that you had.
Speaker 2: Not that you're going to be worried about that because
Speaker 2: you're doing this to be dangerous in the first place.
Speaker 2: But there are some I don't think these people have insurance. Well,
Speaker 2: there are some places like one company called Battleface does
Speaker 2: offer coverage for places like Syria or Ukraine. You're going
Speaker 2: to pay through the absolute nose for it. And if
Speaker 2: you think that the nose is the only place you're
Speaker 2: going to be paying through, I got a diaper in
Speaker 2: the garbage to sell you or something I don't know.
Speaker 1: A diaper in the garbage to sell you. That's a
Speaker 1: good one, much better than the ocean front property and
Speaker 1: Tucsons or.
Speaker 2: The bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. Those are overused.
Speaker 1: Let's go they're antiquated. Let's go with the dirty diaper.
Speaker 2: For those looking for updates on Pope Francis, they haven't
Speaker 2: said a whole lot about his condition, other than he
Speaker 2: rested well throughout the night. He's returned some of his
Speaker 2: duties to Pope. While in the hospital in Italy's capital,
Speaker 2: he met with the Secretary of State and another official
Speaker 2: to sign some documents that are linked to the designations
Speaker 2: of saints. They say the mild kidney problem that cropped
Speaker 2: up is now under control, but he's suffered from no
Speaker 2: further respiratory distress of the kind that he did on
Speaker 2: Saturday morning when everybody was getting their ducks in a
Speaker 2: row in case something happened.
Speaker 1: I thought he was in kidney failure or adjacent.
Speaker 2: I referred to it as a kidney issue. They came
Speaker 2: back from the kidney failure early state.
Speaker 1: You know, it's same on me, for even in wiring.
Speaker 1: It's none of my damn business we're talking about. I
Speaker 1: don't know.
Speaker 2: Him yesterday.
Speaker 1: I know, but don't I don't need to. You know,
Speaker 1: there's hippo laws. There should be a laws against knowing everything.
Speaker 2: I don't think hippo laws exist in Italy.
Speaker 1: But you don't think so.
Speaker 2: I know.
Speaker 1: So there are AI chat bots everywhere. We've talked about
Speaker 1: them for their many uses, whether they provide companionship, or
Speaker 1: they scam you, or they're evil, or they're entertaining as heck,
Speaker 1: now we've got AI chat bots masquerading as therapists. The
Speaker 1: nation's largest association of psychologists has warned federal regulators that
Speaker 1: these chat bots are programmed to reinforce rather than to
Speaker 1: challenge a user's thinking, and that they could drive vulnerable
Speaker 1: people to harm themselves or others. There are two court
Speaker 1: cases that were cited in the legal literature. Here, two
Speaker 1: teenagers who had consulted with psychologists using quotes here on
Speaker 1: character dot ai. This is an app that allows users
Speaker 1: to create fictional AI characters or chat with characters created
Speaker 1: by others. So, in one case, there was a fourteen
Speaker 1: year old boy in Florida who died by suicide after
Speaker 1: interacting with one of these bots that claim to be
Speaker 1: a licensed therapist. In another, seventeen year old boy in
Speaker 1: Texas had autism grew hostile and violent toward his parents
Speaker 1: during the same time he was corresponding with this fake
Speaker 1: psychologist chat bot.
Speaker 2: Now the doctors are alarmed at what these chatbots are saying.
Speaker 2: And again, the way that they work is even if
Speaker 2: you're teaching something to be a therapist, the only thing
Speaker 2: you have available to you is what's already out there
Speaker 2: on the Internet, and they it's not complete, and that's
Speaker 2: also loses the human element that's necessary if a therapist
Speaker 2: is to try to steer you in the right direction.
Speaker 2: For example, Okay, so this seventeen year old you're talking
Speaker 2: about in Texas high functioning autism, his use of AI
Speaker 2: chatbots became obsessive and he was plunged into conflict with
Speaker 2: his parents because they thought he was spending too much
Speaker 2: time on these chatbots. So they try to limit his
Speaker 2: screen time. He lashes out. Now because they have the
Speaker 2: ability to record these things, and with the court discovery,
Speaker 2: they can go back and pull the chat record between
Speaker 2: the two of them. This guy went to this psychologist. Again,
Speaker 2: it's a character, it's not an actual therapist, and the
Speaker 2: avatar that they use for this therapist is just some
Speaker 2: middle aged blonde lady perched on a couch, nice little office.
Speaker 2: And when he asked this fake therapist's opinion about the conflict,
Speaker 2: he said she the bot said, it's like your entire
Speaker 2: childhood has been robbed from you, your chance to experience
Speaker 2: all of these things, to have these core memories that
Speaker 2: most people have of their time growing up, and then said,
Speaker 2: do you feel like it's too late that you can't
Speaker 2: get this time or these experiences back. Just basically stick
Speaker 2: up for yourself and fight back against your parents, when
Speaker 2: actually all they were trying to do is protect this
Speaker 2: kid from being manipulated by this robot.
Speaker 1: I will just say this again, I cannot judge. I
Speaker 1: am not a parent, but to your point about the
Speaker 1: phone contract and parents, I will say responsibility to know
Speaker 1: what their kids are up to. It's got to be
Speaker 1: your responsibility to know if your kid's talking with somebody
Speaker 1: who's claiming to be a licensed therapist, right, I don't
Speaker 1: know how how you find that out.
Speaker 2: But well, there's a lot of people who say it's
Speaker 2: none of your it's none of your business if your
Speaker 2: kid is doing that. Completely disagree with them. I mean
Speaker 2: to the point where you're.
Speaker 1: I understand that if your kid has a therapist that
Speaker 1: you're not going to hear everything that's talked about in
Speaker 1: that room. You may not be privy to all that.
Speaker 1: But if your kid's talking to a bot that's pretending
Speaker 1: to be a therapist, that's an AI bought how do
Speaker 1: you how do you find that out and cut the
Speaker 1: cord there, because that is your business. If there's somebody
Speaker 1: or a machine pretending to be a therapist.
Speaker 2: Well, again, that goes back, like you said, goes back
Speaker 2: to the contract where I had my kid's passwords, and
Speaker 2: at any time, if I asked them to see their
Speaker 2: phone and I the password didn't work, that phone became
Speaker 2: mine and it was.
Speaker 1: But you wouldn't even know where to go to find
Speaker 1: their chat bought therapists. Probably maybe not would you even
Speaker 1: think that they were into that kind of thing?
Speaker 2: I wouldn't use and I'm sure they got away with
Speaker 2: stuff that I never knew. But the point is they
Speaker 2: knew that they better did it very well because I
Speaker 2: was savvy enough to get to some of the basics
Speaker 2: of what they could be doing or what they were doing.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's more about the ability you as a
Speaker 2: parent to never have to use the password, yeah, than
Speaker 2: it is to have it and use it all the time.
Speaker 2: And I mean the the it's more than just saying
Speaker 2: it's a dangerous world out there, protect yourself. There are
Speaker 2: times when the kids will do the things that are
Speaker 2: thus stupidest, the worst decisions, the absolute most dangerous thing
Speaker 2: that they could do, and that's when you're supposed to
Speaker 2: be there to help them avoid that.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it is. I mean, you've done it.
Speaker 1: But I think for some parents it's easier to say
Speaker 1: and have that feeling than to do to get into
Speaker 1: all the stuff that they're into. Oh my gosh, oh terrifying.
Speaker 2: Vivik Ramaswami has thrown his hat into the ring. He
Speaker 2: will be running for governor of Ohio. He was a
Speaker 2: one time presidential candidate. He was the short lived co
Speaker 2: chair of DOJE President Trump endorsed Ramaswami just hours after
Speaker 2: the announcement. Another big political announcement that we're expecting maybe
Speaker 2: this weekend, is that Andrew Cuomo, scandal plagued governor of
Speaker 2: New York who resigned because of his scandals, is probably
Speaker 2: going to run for mayor of New York City and
Speaker 2: could announce his candidacy as soon as this weekend.
Speaker 1: Why not? Why not?
Speaker 2: What do you got to lose?
Speaker 1: How's your gubernatorial run in Washington going?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 2: I have had I've done a few interviews for people
Speaker 2: who would would be your co communications director.
Speaker 1: But no, no, no, I'm not sharing the role. Are you kidding?
Speaker 1: I'm like Elon Musk. You try to give me vivek
Speaker 1: and I will eat him.
Speaker 2: You will eat him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you saw how well that worked, the two headed monster.
Speaker 1: Not for very long. I operate alone.
Speaker 2: Oh, I see, I have a fill it. We'll do
Speaker 2: it next hour. But a philosophical question for you, because
Speaker 2: and I'm not even going to tell you exactly what
Speaker 2: the question is until we get to it next hour.
Speaker 2: But we were talking about the dangerous travel. A lot
Speaker 2: of times people go to these very dangerous places or
Speaker 2: even gruesome dangerous places and there was a guy who
Speaker 2: called left to talk back message with a very interesting
Speaker 2: philosophical question for us, for you and I about that
Speaker 2: kind of tourism. So we'll do that next hour. All right,
Speaker 2: Fire Festival is coming back. Everybody remembers that Billy McFarland,
Speaker 2: a convicted fraudster promoter behind the first Fire Festival, says
Speaker 2: that Fire Festival two is real and that they are
Speaker 2: going to do it. Do you remember you being Shannon
Speaker 2: an interview that you did back in January of twenty
Speaker 2: nineteen with Seth Cross now one of the people who
Speaker 2: went to the first Fire Festival and had an awful time.
Speaker 1: How much money can I ask did you did you
Speaker 1: shell out to go to this?
Speaker 4: It was about five thousand dollars and that was for
Speaker 4: the VIP Lodge, an artists pass that included food and
Speaker 4: drinks and backstage and it was like the super duper,
Speaker 4: you know, experience.
Speaker 2: And we figured that.
Speaker 4: If we had that, we were kind of like capping
Speaker 4: our expenses, because when we originally signed up, we were
Speaker 4: in for about a thousand dollars and then we saw
Speaker 4: these kind of crazy things like a fifty thousand dollars
Speaker 4: cabana and we thought, all right, maybe if we just
Speaker 4: get this pass, we can kind of cap our expenses.
Speaker 4: It'll be a five thousand dollars trip, four days for
Speaker 4: four nights in the Bahamas like that. That's a that's
Speaker 4: about our limit here.
Speaker 2: It turned out that when he got there, he and
Speaker 2: everybody else canceled shows. Tents didn't withstand this army conditions.
Speaker 2: They had sandwiches that were just cheese and a half
Speaker 2: a piece of lettuce, all of it. Founded by Billy
Speaker 2: McFarlane and Ja Rule became viral. Several documentaries came out.
Speaker 2: Billy McFarlane eventually pleaded guilty to frauding investors of twenty
Speaker 2: six million dollars fraudulent ticket selling scheme. He was sentenced
Speaker 2: to six years in federal prison, and if you do
Speaker 2: the math on that, that's not very long. He was
Speaker 2: released early, put under house arrest three years ago and
Speaker 2: has since been planning Fire Festival two.
Speaker 1: So the newest Fire Festival launch is four ticket tiers.
Speaker 1: They are advertising ranging from fourteen hundred dollars to one
Speaker 1: point one million, and vague promises of an electrifying celebration
Speaker 1: of music, arts, cuisine, comedy, fashion, gaming, sports, and treasure hunting.
Speaker 1: The newest version boasts unforgettable performances immersive experiences. They do
Speaker 1: not have an artist lineup, however, huh right now, they
Speaker 1: said that Fire Experiences will be released in a number
Speaker 1: of experimental experiential experiential look at them. Wow, how about
Speaker 1: put some bologna on your cheese sandwich before you start
Speaker 1: using words like experiential. For Christ's sake, sorry I keep
Speaker 1: saying that, But why would you just change the name
Speaker 1: of the Fire Festival to like, not remind anybody of
Speaker 1: Fire Festival. Why wouldn't it just be like Sparkles Festival
Speaker 1: and nobody would ever know that anybody that had a
Speaker 1: hand in the first debacle that was Fire Festival would
Speaker 1: be involved with this.
Speaker 2: I think it's because it does just generate free publicity.
Speaker 2: Uh we're talking about is doing a whole segment on
Speaker 2: it right now.
Speaker 1: You're right, so ps, I'm kind I'm not kind of.
Speaker 1: I'm totally disappointed because I thought when you said you
Speaker 1: found an interview that I did with somebody who went
Speaker 1: to Fire Festival, that it was going to be you
Speaker 1: pretending you were some dips that paid that kind of
Speaker 1: money to go, And I was really looking forward to it.
Speaker 1: I was like, Oh, I wonder what character he played.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I can't wait to hear this. And then
Speaker 1: it was a real interview, Like that's stupid.
Speaker 2: It's funny because it was a day that I wasn't here.
Speaker 2: I don't remember what I was doing. But you and
Speaker 2: Mark Thompson interviewed that guy.
Speaker 1: Stupid. I would rather have you pretend you were a
Speaker 1: guy who went there. Can we do that? This real
Speaker 1: interview stuff? Dumb?
Speaker 2: Yeah, So it's not going to be the Caribbean. It's
Speaker 2: not going to be the island of eg Zuma, but
Speaker 2: they say that it will be on Mexico's Ila Muheries
Speaker 2: from May thirtieth to June.
Speaker 1: Tecond sounds beautiful.
Speaker 2: It does, but I mean it's not a guarantee that
Speaker 2: it won't rain like it did at the first one.
Speaker 2: And if the guy pulls it off. Now here's the
Speaker 2: other thing. Do we allow this guy some sort of
Speaker 2: I don't know, second chapter in his life if he
Speaker 2: pulls this off, and everybody's like, that was the greatest
Speaker 2: four days I have my life.
Speaker 1: No, okay, no, you're done, You're done. We have a huge, massive,
Speaker 1: larger than most twelve o'clock hour coming up.
Speaker 2: Speaking of that murder in the Blue Mountains story about
Speaker 2: James Jamie and his wife Ashley.
Speaker 1: Jamie and Ashley had a storybook life until Ashley was
Speaker 1: found in a ditch.
Speaker 2: It reminds me a lot of that guy in Christopher
Speaker 2: whatever his name was, in Colorado killed his wife and
Speaker 2: two kids.
Speaker 1: Oh the Scott Peterson asked guy who the girls in
Speaker 1: the silo or whatever? Yep, I'm glad I don't remember
Speaker 1: his name. He doesn't deserve to be remembered.
Speaker 2: It's an excellent point. The podcast is up the end
Speaker 2: of every show. Go back and check it out if
Speaker 2: you miss any portion of it. KFIAM six forty dot
Speaker 2: com slash Garyanshannon is where you can find it online,
Speaker 2: or the iHeart app, which is the world's largest podcast app,
Speaker 2: or anywhere you find podcast. Just type in Gary and Shannon.
Speaker 1: Is it as large as our twelve o'clock hour?
Speaker 2: It is within percentage points of the size of our
Speaker 2: twelve o'clock We'll be back right after this. You've been
Speaker 2: listening to the Gary and Shannon Show. You can always
Speaker 2: hear us live on KFI AM six forty nine am
Speaker 2: to one pm every Monday through Friday, and anytime on
Speaker 2: demand on the iHeartRadio app.